The FA Cup: Winners List

The FA Cup is the oldest national football competition in the world. The first edition of the Football Association Challenge Cup, commonly known as the FA Cup, was held in the 1871/72 season. It was contested between only 12 British teams, with Wanderers FC beating Royal Engineers A.F.C in the first final 1-0 at the Kennington Oval.

List of FA Cup winners: 1872 – 2019

The FA Cup is a knockout tournament where games are contested over one leg per round. If a match ends in a draw, it goes to a replay up until the Fourth Round Proper. After the Fourth Round, the match result will be resolved by extra time and penalties. This was a new addition for the 2018/19 FA Cup.

The winners of the FA Cup now enter the UEFA Europa League at the Group Stage. Previously, if the winners of the FA Cup had already qualified for a European tournament through the league or a European cup win, then the runners-up of the FA Cup would clinch a place in the Europa League. But this ended due to a change in the UEFA regulations in 2015. The place will now go to the next highest-place team in the league that have not yet qualified for a European spot. In the Premier League, that currently goes to the seventh-place team.

As well as a European spot, the winners of the FA Cup get £3.6million in prize money, with the runners-up getting £1.8million.

FA Cup 2018 winner – Chelsea

Chelsea are the reigning FA Cup holders after they beat Manchester United 1-0 in the 2018 FA Cup final at Wembley Stadium, thanks to a 22nd-minute Eden Hazard penalty.

The Blues had a mixed route to the final, with their toughest tie proving to be their third round clash against Championship side Norwich City. The Canaries held Chelsea to a 0-0 draw at Carrow road, before the Blues won 5-3 on penalties in the replay at Stamford Bridge after a 1-1 draw during the 90 minutes and extra time.

Chelsea ran out comfortable winners in the fourth and fifth rounds, beating Newcastle United 3-0 and Hull City 4-0, both at Stamford Bridge.

The quarter-final against Leicester City also proved tough for Chelsea, led by former manager Antonio Conte. They needed extra time to overcome the Foxes, with Pedro netting the winner in a 2-1 win at the King Power Stadium.

In the semi-final, Chelsea battled past a resilient Southampton side at Wembley Stadium to reach the final. Conte’s side won 2-0 after two second half goals, with a sublime individual effort from Olivier Giroud seconds after half-time, jinking past two Southampton defenders in a congested box before poking home.

Impressively, of the seven FA Cup games played by Chelsea in the 2017/18 campaign, they only conceded two goals and kept five clean sheets, with only Leicester City’s Jamie Vardy and Norwich City’s Jamal Lewis breaching the defence.

Famous FA Cup wins

The 1988 FA Cup final is one of the biggest shocks in the history of the tournament, as the most dominant English side of the 1980s and league champions Liverpool played Wimbledon at Wembley, a side who had only been in the Football League system for 11 years.

Despite being huge underdogs Wimbledon beat the champions 1-0 in front of 98,203 fans, with Lawrie Sanchez grabbing the only goal of the game in the 37th minute. Wimbledon goalkeeper and captain Dave Beasant made the first ever FA Cup final penalty save in that game too, keeping out an effort from John Aldridge on the hour mark.

The 1988 FA Cup final is also remembered as the game where football commentator John Motson delivered the lines “The Crazy Gang have beaten the Culture Club.”

In more recent history, the 2013 FA Cup final provided a huge shock too. Premier League runners up Manchester City faced Wigan Athletic, who had been battling relegation all season.

The Latics held out a potent strikeforce of Sergio Aguero and Carlos Tevez for the entire game before Latics midfielder Ben Watson popped up with a header in stoppage-time to beat the Cityzens 1-0.

Unfortunately for Wigan Athletic, they were unable to avoid relegation after the FA Cup win, making them the first side to win the FA Cup and get relegated from the Premier League in the history of the competition.

The 2008 FA Cup final provided a shock matchup, as Portsmouth and second-tier Cardiff City played under the Wembley arch for the famous trophy. Portsmouth won 1-0 thanks to a Nwankwo Kanu strike.